Origins of the name The earliest
Irish name for the site of the modern city was ,
Old Irish for "oak wood of Calgach", after an unknown pagan.
John Keys O'Doherty, the Catholic
Bishop of Derry from 1889 to 1907, sought to identify Calgach with
Agricola's opponent
Calgacus, A
Celtic Christian monastery was founded at in the sixth century;
Adomnán names Saint
Columba as founder. As the monastic site grew in prominence, the name was reduced to just
Doire (now pronounced ). The
settlement was destroyed in 1608 by
Cahir O'Doherty, Irish chieftain of
Inishowen.
The London connection During the
Plantation of Ulster by English and Scottish settlers, a new
walled city was built across the
River Foyle from the old site by
the Irish Society, a consortium of the
livery companies of the
City of London. In recognition of the London investors, the 1613 charter stated "that the said city or town of Derry, for ever hereafter be and shall be named and called the city of Londonderry". The county was created by the same charter, largely based on the previous
county of Coleraine, and named "Londonderry" after the new
county town. The
Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 reformed the
municipal corporation and renamed it from "The Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of Londonderry" to "The Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens of Londonderry". Under the
Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, the city of Londonderry became the
county borough of Londonderry, and the rest of the "
judicial county" of Londonderry became the "
administrative county" of Londonderry.
Pronunciation of Londonderry Historically,
Londonderry was pronounced in Ireland as , with
primary stress on the third syllable and secondary stress on the first syllable. In England, it was pronounced , with primary stress on the first syllable and the third syllable
reduced or
elided. otherwise, the usual pronunciation now is with primary stress on the first syllable and secondary stress on the third syllable.
Historical usage Before the outbreak of the Troubles in the late 1960s, the name was less contentious. While "Londonderry" was the official and formal name, most people in Northern Ireland called it "Derry" in informal speech. The 1837
Ordnance Survey Memoir of the area concurs, and remarks "this mode of abbreviation is usual in Ireland, whenever the name of a place is compounded of two distinct and easily separable words; thus ...
Carrickfergus is shortened into
Carrick,
Downpatrick into
Down, ... etc." or county as "Derry". Administrative subdivisions of various types were named after the city, including the
barony of
North West Liberties of Londonderry,
townland and
poor law union [PLU; later superintendent
registrar's district] of Londonderry,
county districts of Londonderry Nos. 1 and 2, All these were obsolete by 1972. In the
Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the two-seat Westminster
county constituency of
Londonderry was split into two single-seat county divisions. The use of "Derry" rather than "Londonderry" in their names was proposed by
Frank Hugh O'Donnell, who said he thought that "at the time when the London Companies were despairing of retaining their hold upon Derry this Amendment would be accepted by the House. The Amendment would be welcomed in the North of Ireland, where the county in question was always spoken of as Derry, and not as Londonderry." This amendment was defeated, on the basis that a county constituency name ought to match the official county name; but
T. M. Healy then proposed keeping the county name but changing the division names, thus:
Londonderry (North Derry division) and
Londonderry (South Derry division). Only
David Plunket opposed this, noting "the City of Londonderry was spoken of both as Derry and Londonderry. The name of Derry was given when it was spoken of as a separate division of the county." The
Stormont constituencies of
North,
South,
Mid and
City of Londonderry were so named
by statute in 1929, although a 1935
Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland map uses "Derry" instead of "Londonderry" for these. In the Stormont debate on the Electoral Law Act 1962, the
Nationalist Party proposed to rename the "City of Londonderry" constituency to "City of Derry";
Brian Faulkner called the proposal "frivolous" and the claim that any unionists would support it "absolute nonsense". The
Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) was agnostic on the
partition issue and sought votes from Catholic and Protestant workers; its affiliate in the city was officially named the "Londonderry Labour Party". In 1946 the NILP's constituency branches for City of Londonderry and
Foyle formed a
steering group called the "Derry Central Labour Party". In 1952, the Irish and Northern Ireland governments agreed to establish the
Foyle Fisheries Commission via parallel acts of their respective legislatures with largely identical texts; one difference was a reference to "the county of Londonderry" in the
Stormont act as opposed to "the county of Derry" in the
Oireachtas act. The "Foyle Area" under jurisdiction of the commission combined the "Londonderry District" in Northern Ireland with the "
Moville District" formed in 1926 from the part of the original Londonderry District which was now in the
Irish Free State. In 1958, when the newly launched made a courtesy visit to its namesake port, nationalist councillor James Doherty protested that it was "a foreign warship which had been called after a version of the name of the city". In 1963 the BBC commissioned from Terry McDonald
A City Solitary, a documentary about the city scripted by
John Hume and narrated by
Brian Hannon. This implicit acceptance by Hume of
Londonderry was recalled in later decades when he was a leading nationalist politician. In 1965,
Eddie McAteer of the
University for Derry Committee expressed the hope that the rare common cause between local unionists and nationalists would force
the Stormont government to reverse its decision not to base the
New University of Ulster there: "The Government might be able to slap down the men of Derry. They might even be able to slap down the men of Londonderry. But they cannot slap down the united men of Derry and Londonderry". In 1984,
Peter Robinson of the
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) commented in the
UK House of Commons:
District council The
Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 and the
Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 abolished the councils of the counties and county boroughs, and the lower-level county [urban and rural] districts. These were replaced by
26 new districts based around towns and cities. The geographical areas of the county and city no longer correspond to local government areas, but retain a legal existence as
lieutenancy areas for ceremonial purposes.{{#tag:ref|For example, there are
Lords Lieutenant both
"of County Londonderry" and
"of the County Borough of Londonderry"; while notices in the
London Gazette for the
Queen's Award for Voluntary Service are, since 2013, broken down by lieutenancy areas, including "County Londonderry" and "the City of Londonderry". Unionists criticised the decision. The UUP and DUP boycotted city council meetings until the
1989 local elections, their councillors merely signing the roll once every three months to avoid forfeiting their seats. The DUP considered advocating a separate council for the unionist
Waterside area. discussed the matter at its plenary sessions. Patten gave evidence to the Assembly's Environment Committee, where
Gregory Campbell hurled an
Irish tricolour at him from the gallery; the committee's report favoured retaining the name
Londonderry, with dissent from the
Alliance Party (APNI).
Martin Smyth said, "We are told that the two communities have to live together. We had a classic illustration of a name that brought the two communities together – Londonderry. 'London' indicates the British tradition and 'Derry' the Irish tradition. But the Government decided to do away with 'London' in the name of the Council."
William Ross said, "Derry has never been used as the name of the city or of the island of Londonderry except as a shortened version of a longer name. The name was Derry Columbkille for centuries. It was Londonderry for centuries. Before that it was Derry Calgach [...] Those who sought the change sought it for no good reason. Their aim was to open a door. [...] It is beyond me how the name Derry city council will be separated from the concept of Londonderry city in the public mind. Everyone in Northern Ireland knows that the Republican elements in Londonderry city will ignore the name as they have always done. They now have a lever to put up Derry city right across the board. [...] People in Northern Ireland see it as an anti-British move by the most extreme Republican movements in Londonderry and the rest of Northern Ireland."
Debate on renaming the city At the time of the 1984 name change, members of the majority SDLP group on the city council declared that it was not seeking to change the name of the city as it had no intention of "petitioning an English queen to change the name of our Irish city". The same process used by Derry City Council in 1984 was used less contentiously in 1999, when Dungannon district became
Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough, reflecting that it extended to parts of
County Tyrone distant from
Dungannon town.
Judicial review In April 2006 Derry City Council applied to the
High Court of Northern Ireland to obtain a ruling that the true name of the city was indeed Derry, or alternatively an order that the British Government must change the name. It applied to the
Information Commissioner's Office to require the
Northern Ireland Office to make public the legal advice it had received at the time of the 1984 name change. The case opened in Belfast High Court on 6 December 2006 before Mr Justice Weatherup. The council's case was that the 1662 charter naming the city "Londonderry" was subject to subsequent local government legislation, and that the renaming of the city council in 1984 amended the charter by altering the name. A ruling was handed down in 2007 that the city officially remained
Londonderry, according to the royal charter of 10 April 1662:
Equality impact assessment During the High Court case, it was clarified that the correct procedure to rename the city was via a petition to
the Privy Council. On 27 November 2007, the council passed a motion by
Gerry MacLochlainn to make such a petition. It was argued that this would provide a single clear identity to reduce confusion and facilitate marketing the city for tourism and investment. Three alternative proposals were rejected: to make no change to the name; to change to "Derry/Londonderry"; or to change the name of the city to "Derry" but retain the name of "Londonderry" for the historic core within
the city walls. An
equality impact assessment (EQIA) was instigated to advise how the resolution could best be implemented. An opinion poll of district residents was commissioned in 2009, which reported that 75% of Catholics and 77% of nationalists found the proposed change acceptable, compared to 6% of Protestants and 8% of unionists. It found 76% of Protestants and 79% of unionists preferred the name "Londonderry" while 94% of Catholics and nationalists preferred "Derry". Overall, 26% found the proposal "very acceptable", 27% "acceptable", 6% "unacceptable", and 8% "totally unacceptable", while 32% had "no strong views". The EQIA held two consultative forums, and solicited comments from the public at large. Over 7,500 submissions collected by opponents of the change were submitted on the deadline of 11 September 2009. Most submissions did not elaborate on reasons for support or opposition; Many responses came from outside the city council district area. It suggested "the city might petition to be known as the 'City of Derry known equally as Londonderry and Doire' and commit to the use of the terms Derry-Londonderry-Doire on all official signage and public imagery" It encouraged alternative suggestions. The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland's submission stated, "In the light of the serious adverse impacts on people of different religion/political belief within the Council area, and possibly for the region as a whole, the Equality Commission strongly advise Derry City Council not to proceed with the policy as it is currently proposed since a range of possible options has not been adequately considered and a significant amount of good relations work remains to be done before any official name change is considered." Alternative courses it offered were joint use of "Derry" and "Londonderry"; petitioning the Privy Council for multiple official names; changing the spelling of the name to "LondonDerry"; and renaming the city to "DoireLondonDerry". The Town Clerk submitted the EQIA report to the council in time for its meeting on 8 March 2010, at which Sinn Féin councillors brought a motion to proceed with the petition. This was voted down by SDLP and unionist councillors. The SDLP then tabled motions to establish a steering group on the issue and to convene the political party heads; both motions were also rejected. In the aftermath of the meeting,
Gregory Campbell, the DUP MP for
East Londonderry, said the issue was 'dead', citing the result of the EQIA as the basis of his opinion.
Derry and Strabane council Plans to
alter the number and area of districts in Northern Ireland began in 2005. In 2008,
Environment Minister Arlene Foster proposed replacing the 26 district councils with 11 larger area councils, with the areas of Derry City Council and
Strabane District Council to be merged. In 2009, Mark Orr, a
Queen's Counsel and Assistant Commissioner proposing names and boundaries for the scheme, recommended the name "Derry City and Strabane Regional Council" for the merged body, even though unionist representatives had favoured a name which used "Londonderry" or avoided either word. Political deadlock delayed the reorganisation until 1 April 2015, when the new
Derry and Strabane District Council took office. The district name was officially changed from "
Derry and Strabane" to "Derry City and Strabane" on 24 February 2016. On 23 July 2015, the new council voted in favour of a motion to change the official name of the city to Derry and to write to
Mark H. Durkan, Northern Ireland Minister of the Environment, to ask how the change could be effected. Unionist councillors called the decision "sectarian" and "disgusting", and in August submitted an official challenge to the request. Rival
change.org petitions for and against the proposal were started. In October and November in the
House of Lords, minister
Lord Dunlop gave two answers on the matter to unionist
Lord Laird, who claimed any name change would require cross-community consensus under the
Good Friday Agreement. The second said it would "only do so with consensus". Unionists interpreted this as a definitive rejection.
Other official names In 1994, the city council voted, again along nationalist–unionist lines, to rename "Londonderry Eglinton Airport" to "
City of Derry Airport", coinciding with the opening of a new terminal building. Some commentators have suggested that "Derry" is less justifiable as a name for the county than for the city, since the county has never officially been called "Derry". William Houston of Londonderry Unionist Association said in 1995: ==Incidents==